Annette d'Aubisson
Annette d’Aubisson is an interesting addition to the Kindred of L.A. She is certainly a figure at the center of much intrigue and speculation at Elysium. Attractive, talented, poised, & well mannered she seems the ideal Daeva. Yet there is a certain stiffness to her that gives others pause. Like a diamond blade she is pleasing to the eye, but bears a cold, sharp edge simultaneously. Few outside of the Circle understand the mystic significance, but any Kindred known as the First Fury is simply bound to be trouble. More than that, Annette is the head of a three vampire coterie, The Erinyes that serve the Hierophant as bodyguards, enforcers, and inquisitors. In essence she, and by extension, he childer are Nordstran’s private Hounds. Of course, it should also be understood that Nordstran is a powerful vampire in her own right through both her mastery of Protean and her potent Crũac rituals. By necessity, the personal warriors of such a Kindred must be frighteningly powerful indeed. And any event or individual that requires the intervention of both the Hierophant and the Furies is epic in scope. But the truly interesting things about Annette have nothing to do with her ability, and everything to do with her history. She began her Requiem among the thr Invictus. Likewise, she was Embraced into it and served the covenant for a brief time. However, she had little interest in the politics of the First Estate, and while searching for her calling in unlife she happened upon the philosophies of the Circle of the Crone. Fascinated, in 1968 she defected from the Invictus and joined those who revered the All Mother. Defection from the First Estate This in and of itself is not so unusual as Kindred jump covenants all the time. What made this unusual was that neither Annette nor her sire were exactly your run-of-the-mill Daeva; both were part of the Spina bloodline. More than that, her sire was a member of the Order of the Thorned Wreath, one of the premiere knightly orders of the Invictus. Annette’s defection was seen as a great stain upon her sire’s honor and upon the Order that she was being groomed to join. As such, Annette has faced a constant stream of challenges, particularly from her true brothers and sisters of the blood, and has participated in monomancy countless times. In fact, it got so bad at one point that the Prince issued a decree forbidding duels to take place at Elysium. The number of challenges has lessened over the years, even if they have not completely stopped, as her victories began to pile up. Most curiously her sire seems to have forgiven her, after she fought him to a draw in a duel. When questioned he only answered, “It is the raison d’être of the Spina to find a cause we are passionate about and devote ourselves to it fully. I cannot fault my childe that her cause is not my own.” As an Acolyte And, indeed, Annette has devoted herself fully to the cause of the Circle and sworn her personal loyalty to the Hierophant, taking a blood oath to this effect. Strangely enough, despite this loyalty, she is not a member of the Cult of Kali, but instead follows the small but powerful Cult of Nyx, part of the larger House Sistrum a institution that she helped realize. This has produced some conflicts of interest, as the two cults do not see eye to eye on many matters, but one of the Barbed does not go back on her word. Religious devotion may guide her choice of god, but personal honor binds her to Lilya Nordstran and such loyalty is often the most powerful of all. Current Nights To date, Annette and her childer have been placed in charge of the conflict with the Sanctified on the Pasadena border, and this holds most of her attention, although the Furies are also often called upon to act as guards when the Hierophant attends Court, when key the Acolytes must meet with powerful vampires or when parlay between Acolytes and other supernatural creatures like werewolves and mages occurs. The Furies, and Annette in particular, also have a place within many of the Circle’s bloodier rites and are called upon to serve as unofficial executioners.